全球国际收支失衡的可持续性、调整时机与对策建议

全球国际收支失衡是我们讨论的一个出发点,对此我们有着明显不同的观点.总的来说,我们没有考虑到美国国际收支失衡的可持续性.我们提到了有关解决全球国际收支失衡的一些问题和概念,比如美国的资产回报率可能比较高等问题;前面的讨论主要是考虑到亚洲的顺差,特别是中国的顺差;有时候政策制订者会对危机做出过度反应;余永定也提到中国实际上并不想拥有太多的外汇储备.     

Nonlinearity,nonstationarity, and thick tails: How they interact to generate persistence in memory

We consider nonlinear functions of random walks driven by thick-tailed innovations. Nonlinearity, nonstationarity, and thick tails interact to generate a spectrum of autocorrelation patterns consistent with the observed persistence in memory of many economic and financial time series. Depending upon the type of transformation considered and whether it is observed with noise, the autocorrelations are given by unity, random constants, or hyperbolically decaying deterministic functions, possibly with some independent noise, and thus may decay slowly or even not at all. Along with other sample characteristics, such patterns suggest that these three ingredients may generate the ubiquitous evidence for long memory.     

Productivity Growth in Different Plant‐size Groups in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector*

In the present study, we develop a stochastic frontier production model that allows for different groups of firms to have different patterns of technical efficiency over time. We apply our model to the Malaysian manufacturing sector to decompose total factor productivity growth into technical efficiency change and technical progress for different plant size groups (e.g. large and small) in seven industries during 2000–2004. Our empirical results indicate that technical efficiency has worsened across all industries and plant‐size groups. In contrast, we find evidence of substantial technical progress in all industries. In fact, technical progress has been larger than technical efficiency deterioration in most industries and plant‐size groups, leading to total factor productivity growth. Our analysis identifies the industries and plant‐size groups that lag the most in terms of productivity, and thus have the greatest scope for policies that facilitate productivity growth.     

Mediating role of perceived supervisor support in the relationship between job autonomy and mental health: moderating role of value–means fit

Based on self-determination theory (SDT), this study investigates the relationship between job autonomy and mental health and the mediating role of perceived supervisor support (PSS) in that relationship. The study also examines whether employees’ work values moderate the relationships between job autonomy and PSS and mental health. Although it is well known that job autonomy has close relationships with mental health, we know little about the roles of PSS and employees’ values in these relationships. Using data from a nationally representative survey, this study found that PSS mediated the relationship between job autonomy and mental health. Furthermore, intrinsic work values positively moderated the relationships of job autonomy with PSS and mental health, whereas extrinsic work values negatively moderated these relationships. These findings support the idea of value–means fit. The findings provide important implications, beyond SDT, for how employees’ mental health can be improved and which employees benefit more from job autonomy.     

Evaluating competitiveness of air cargo express services

This paper explores the relative importance of factors that influence the adoption of air express delivery service, and evaluates the competitiveness of air cargo express carriers in the Korean market. Our AHP analysis shows that accuracy and promptness are the two most influential factors to competitiveness, and that DHL is most competitive in the Korean market, followed by FedEx, TNT, EMS, and UPS. We further examine both the factor importance and carriers’ competitiveness from the perspective of service users. While accuracy and promptness remain as important factors, price becomes the most important factor. Finally, an importance–performance analysis for each carrier is conduced, and managerial implications are drawn.     

Sustainable consumption and the financial sector: analysing the markets for responsible investment in Hong Kong and Japan

The origins of the modern socially responsible investment (SRI) movement can be traced to the turbulent period in the 1960s when powerful social undercurrents including environmentalism and anti‐war activism fuelled a rise, in a radical change, in the way society viewed faith, values and commerce. Today, nearly 1 out of every US$9 under professional management in the US is currently invested using social investment strategies while the European green and ethical investment market is estimated to be €1 trillion or as much as 10–15% of the total funds under management. While some preliminary figures and analyses exist for countries outside these two regions, SRI has been, to date, largely explored within the context of North America and Europe. This is unfortunate as the sustainability of SRI as a consumer market is going to depend, to a great extent, to what happens outside of North America and Europe, and most notably in the rapidly developing Asian economies. In this article, I will explore the development of SRI as a mainstream financial consumer instrument in industrialized (Japan) and emerging (Hong Kong/China) economies of the Asia Pacific region. To fully analyse the SRI market development in Hong Kong and Japan, I will examine the following three issues and questions: first, how does the sustainable consumption framework offer a useful lens from which to explore SRI, and why is the Asia Pacific market and policy context so important for the broader issue of sustainable consumption? Second, what precisely is SRI and how did it develop into an important global financial investment vehicle? Third, how did the SRI market develop in the case of Hong Kong and Japan? I will then conclude the article with some analysis on the important lessons SRI market development in Hong Kong and Japan hold for market sustainability of the financial sector and sustainable consumption.     

Examining academic Internet use using a combined method

Since the inception of the Internet in South Korea, the Internet has become an important medium for information and communication among collegians due to its complete integration into everyday school lives. This study examines the scholarly use and role of advanced computer and communications technologies in general and the Internet in particular via an open-ended, qualitative survey among Korean university students. Through word frequency analysis and semantic mapping, this paper identifies the key issues in academic Internet use. In addition to information science methods, content analysis is used to investigate the attitudinal and behavior dimensions in scholarly Internet use. The results are expected to enable professors and policymakers to target populations who underutilize the educational potential of Internet technologies and to design e-learning programs for such students.     

Impact of school district demographics and financial status on E-Rate funding: Analysis of Pennsylvania data for 1999 and 2004

The E-Rate program was mandated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act to bridge the gap in telecommunications and internet access between rich and poor communities in the United States. Though the funding process embraces specific formulas to direct support at the most needy schools and school districts, a concern has been raised that the complex, multi-stage application process may prevent some school districts from availing themselves of E-Rate funds due to lack of technical expertise and administrative support. The objective of the paper is to assess the cumulative impact of these two contradictory effects. Changes in funding patterns over time are also examined. Data on all E-Rate projects where the recipient is a school district were collected for two years, 1999 and 2004, for the state of Pennsylvania. Results show that E-Rate funding was significantly positively correlated with the poverty rate and percentage of minority students fulfilling the policy intent, but school districts receiving more revenue per student also obtained higher E-Rate support. Location too was found to be a significant predictor of E-Rate funding. The policy implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion.     

Meeting the Needs of Organic Farmers: Benchmarking Organizational Performance of University Extension

A stochastic frontier model is used to explain the performance evaluation by organic producers of programs provided by the U.S. university extension systemproviders. We identify nonmanagerial factors that influence both performance ratings and performance efficiency, defined as achieving a rating as close to the highest rating as possible. Results based on the organic farmer evaluators indicate that extension agents are performing at high mean efficiency of 0.95, but that the average rating is relatively low at 2.66 on a four-point scale. Years of experience in organic farming and the severity of production problems facing farmers have significant impacts on performance ratings.